Sound-producing device



L. J. GRUBMAN SOUND Pndbucme DEVICE Aug. 26, 1930.

Filed Feb. 25 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet l Aug. 26, 1930.

| J. GRUBMAN SOUND PRODUCING DEVICE Filed Feb. 25, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR 4424 ATTOR Y Patented Aug. 26, a 1930 PATENT, omcr. Y

LEO J. GRUIBMAN, OF BELLE HARBOR, NEW YORK,

SOUND-PRODUCING DEVICE Application filed February 25 1925p Serial No. 11 ,416.

This invention relates to sound producing devices, and more particularly to a device.

adapted to be incorporated within the body of a doll or other toy for simulating a charac- 5 teristic cry thereof, such for instance, as.

the word Fma ma. 1

The primary object of my present inventlon is to provide a simple'andnovel means for controlling the emission of sound and effecting a proper articulation thereof. To

this end, in one embodiment of the invention Ifprovide anair receiving chamber and a gravity movable head'for expelling air from said chamber through, a sound producing reed. This head carries a sound control element movable in an angular direction relative to the direction of the air expelling movement of the head and operates to effect an intermittent emission and proper articulation of the sound. In conjunction with this sound" control element there is provided means exteriorly of the air chamber to coact with said element and impart a predetermined movement thereto as the air is expelled from said chamber.

More particularly, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, I provide the air eX-' pelling head with relatively rotatable apertured parts and means coacting with said parts in the movement of said head to rotate said parts in relatively opposite directions,

for the purpose of registering the sound emission apertures with each other. By thus relatively rotatingsaid parts,is reduced to a minimum the extent of registration thereof necessary for the proper articulation of the sound and thereby minimize frictional resistance to the gravity air expelling movement of the head- It is also a further-general object of the invention to provide a sound producing device of the above character operating to produce a very realistic simulation of the infant. cry mama, and which is composed of comparatively few parts, easily assembled, of substantial construction and not liable to get out of order. p

With the above and other objects in view,

the invention consists in the improved sound producing device and in the form, construction and relative arrangement-of its several parts as will be hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and subsequently incorporated in the subjoined claims. I In the drawings wherein I have illustrated one simple and practical embodiment of the invention, and in which similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several vieWs,'

through my improved sound producing device taken substantially on the line 11 of Fig.2;, Fig. 2 is a'horizontal sectiontaken on the line 22 of Fig. 1;

of the movable air expelling head; I Fig. 4 is a similarview of the relatively, rotatablesound control element'carried by said head;

Fig. 5 is an elevation of the casing or housing for the operative parts ofv the device;

Fig. 6 is an end viewthereof with the cap or cover removed, and

Fig. 7 is a developed plan view of the body wall of the casing.

Sound producing devices intended for use Figure 1 is a longitudinalsectional View Fig. 3 is a plan vlew of the body member in dolls and other toys of that type wherein I there is provided a cylindrical bellows enclosed within a casing or housing and hav ing'a movable air expelling head at one of its ends are now well known in the art. My present invention relates tocertain improvements particularly in the means for efi'ecting an articulated emission of the sound in devices of this type. Therefore, for purposes of illustration, in the accompanying drawings, I have shown an enclosed casing or housing 5 for the" operative parts of the device which preferably consists of a sheet metal cylinder of requisite length having suitable closures at the opposite ends thereof. If desired, one'of these closures indicated at 6 maybe integral with or perma-' nently fixed to the body wall of said casing and is provided with a plurality ofsuitably arranged openings 7 through which the sound is finally emitted from said casing. A cap or closure plate 8 is provided for the which is freely movable by gravity within the casing 5. 1 i As herein shown, I provide the head 11 wlth a sound receiving chamber 12,

the annular wall of said chamber at one side thereof being integral with the end wall 13.. At its other end, the annular wall of said head is provided with an offset flange 14 forming an internal shoulder 15 against which the end edge of the flexible bellows wall 10 is adapted to be seated and securely clamped by means of a disc 16 fitted within said end of the bellows. Likewise, no claim is made herein to this means for attaching the end of the bellows wall to the weighty head 11, since it constitutes the subject-matter of my co-pending application for patent. Serial No. 685,500, filed January 11, 1924.

Thedisc 11 is provided wit-h a central open ing to. receive a tube 1?, said tube being closed at one end and engaged against the inner side of the wall 13 while the other end of said tube extending within the bellows chamber is open. Within this tube there is suitably mounted asounding reed 18 of approved construction, the exit end of the reed tube being adjacent to an opening 19 in the wall of the tube 17 which afi'ords communication between the interior of said tube and the sound receiving chamber 12 of the weighty head 11.

The tube 17 at its closed end is fixed to the wall 13 by means of the pin or rivet 20 which also extends. through a central openingin the bushing 21 on the oppositeside of said wall and through the washer plate 22 which is of slightly greater diameter than said bushing. A rotatable sound control element or disc 23 is loosely engaged. upon the bushing 21 between the washer 22 and the wall 13 for free rotative movement. Adjacent to said bushing, the disc 23 is provided upon the side thereof opposed to the wall 1.3 with a boss 24. This boss is quite short but spaces the face of the disc from the wall 13sufliciently to provide a narrow passage therebetween, as indicated at 25. This disc '23 is substantially equal in diameter to the external diameter of the offset flange 14: for a reason which will presently become apparent.

Thewall 13.0f the weighty bellows head 11 is provided with an aperture or apertures 26 for the emission of sound from the chamber 12. As herein shown, I preferably provide four such apertures in diametrically opposed relation to each other, though it will be understood that a greater or less number of such apertures may be provided.

F or each of the apertures 26 in the wall 13 there is provided in the rotatable control disc 23 a pair of cooperating apertures 27 and 28 respectively, the apertures 27 being of substantially the same width and radial length as ,the apertures 26, while the apertures 28 are of appreciably greater width than said apertures 26 and 27. These apertures 27 and 28 are spaced apart a predetermined distance during which it is desirable to interrupt the egressof sound from the chamber 12.

As clearly shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings, the offset flange 1a of the weighty bellows head is provided on the outer side thereof at diametrically opposite, points with suitably spaced lugs29. and a concave recess 30 between said lugs. Similarly, the rotatable control disc 23 is provided at diametrically opposite points on'its edge with the spaced outwardly projecting lugs 31 and a concave recess 32 between said lugs.

The body wall of the casing 5 is inwardly stamped or pressed at spaced points to pro vide diametrically opposed helically inclined ribs 33 thereon which extend in the same direction circumferentially of the casing wall. These ribs 33 are adaptedvto be received in the recesses 30 to coact with the lugs 29 on the weighty head 11 of the bellows as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings. A second pair of similar helical ribs .34 are formed in the casing wall but extend circumferentially of said wall in an oppsite direction to the ribs 33 and are also diiferently located longitudinally of the casing, said ribs 34 having one of their ends located nearer to the end 6 of the casing than the corresponding ends of the ribs 33. These latter ribs 3% are engaged in the'n-otches or recesses 32 of the control disc 23 and cooperate with the lugs 31 to impart rotative movement to said disc relative to the body member 11 of the bellows head. in a reverse direction to the direction of rotative movement of said body member during the air expelling movement of said head.

In the operation of the device as above described, assuming that the bellows is inflated and the device is in the position as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing, the head of the bellows moves downwardly in the casing 5, compressing the air within the bellows chamber and expelling theair through the reed 18, the sound thus produced passing through opening 19 into thechamber 12 of the bellows head. In the initial air expelling movement of said head, the sound is emitted in restricted volume through apertures 26 and the passages 25 between the wall 13 of the bellows head and the control disc 23 and simulates the articulation of the letter M. In the continuous. gravity movement of the bellows head, the lugs 29 'on the flange 14; of

said head coact with the helically inclined ribs 33 on the casing wall and the lugs 31 on the control disc 23 simultaneously coact with the reversely inclined ribs 34' on said casing wall. Relative rotation is thus imparted to the body of the bellows head and to the control disc 23- in reverse directions so that the apertures 26 and 27 in thewall l3 and disc 23 respectively, rapidly approach each other and finally come into full registration, thus emitting sound from the chamber 12 in larger volume and simulating the spoken pronunciation of the letter A, thus completing the first syllable ma. The reverse rotation of the parts 11 and 23 continues without interruption in the gravity movement of the bellows head, the parts of the disc 23 between the apertures 27 and 28 covering the apertures 26 in the wall 13 during which time sound in restricted volume is.

again emitted through the latter apertures and passages 25 for the second sounding of the letter M and thereafter, in the continued relative rotation of the parts 11 and 23 the apertures 28 of said disc and apertures 26 in the wall 13 are brought into registering relation to again emit sound in greater volume for the second simulation of the letter A. It will be noted that the apertures 28 are appreciably wider than the apertures 27 so that the final articulation of the letter A is of greater duration than the first articulation thereof. Thus, the pronunciation of the two syllables of the word ma ma is com- I pleted in the collapse of the bellows and when the head thereof comes to a final position of rest, the apertures 28 of the disc 23 are out of registration with the apertures 26 in the wall 13 of the bellows head. Upon inverting the position of the device from the position shown in Fig. 1, the bellows head moves in the opposite direction, expanding thebellows and causing the inflation thereof, while the body of said head'and the disc 23 are again rotated in relatively opposite directions by the cooperation of the lugs formedthereon with the respective helical ribs 33 and 34: on the casing wall.

From the foregoing description, considered in connection with the acompanying drawings, the construction, manner of operation and several advantages of the device will be clearlyunderstood. It will be seen that by imparting relative rotation to the parts 11 and 26 in opposite directions I am enabled to reduce the degree of such rotation necessary to properly register the sound emission apertures with each other to a minimum. Therefore, it will also be apparent that the necessary degree of inclination of the 'ribs33 and 3a to effect a proper articulation ofthe'sound is likewise reduced to a minimum so that there will be nogreat amount of frictional resistance due to coaction between the ribs and the lugs 29 and 31- which would tend to materially retard the gravity movement of the bellows head. i j

. For purposes of simplicity, cheapnessand convenience in manufacture, I have shown "the body wall of the shell or casing provided with the helical ribs for coaction with the relatively rotatable sound articulating parts, but it will be understood that functionally equivalent meansstructurally separate from the said casing may be utilized if desired. Also, the variousother details herein referred to for purposes of illustration, such as the particular construction of the bellows head and the mounting and arrangement of the reed as well as the form and shape of the control disc and the apertures therein might be variously modified, without materially afi'ecting the results-produced. Accordingtory in practical operation, the essential characteristics thereof may nevertheless be exemplified in other alternative structural forms, and I reserve the privilege of resorting to all such legitimate changes as may be fairly embodied in thespirit and scope of the invention as claimed. i

I claim:

1. In a sound producing device, an air chamber and a rectilinearly movable member for expelling air from said chamber, a sound producing reed through which the airis expelled, said member having a sound receiving passage provided with an emissionaperture, a

part mounted upon said member for movement over said aperture in a plane at right angles to the path of'movement of said member to control the emission of sound through said aperture, and operating means for said part locate-d exteriorly of said air chamber in fixed relation to said member and coacting with means on said part to actuate the same aperture, one of said parts constituting a valve disc and disc rotating means coacting wlth means on the periphery of said CllSC to rotate the same in the movement of said member in one direction and to effect an articulated emission of the sound during the air expelling movement of said member.

3. In a. sound producing device, an air chamber and a weighty gravity movable member for expelling air from said chamber,

a sound producing reed through which the r air is expelled, said member having a plurality of independently rotatable apertured parts controlling the emission of sound and provided with a sound receiving passage leading to the apertures, and means coacting with means on said parts to rotate each of said parts relative to the other to move the apertures thereof into and out of registering relation and efiect an articulated emission of the sound during the air expelling movement of said member.

4. In a sound producing, device, an air chamber and a weighty gravity movable member for expelling air from said chamber, a sound producing reed through which the air is expelled, said member having a sound receiving passage and apertured parts relative ly movable in an angular direction with respect to the path of airexpell ng movement of said member and controlling emission of sound from said passage, and means enacting with means on said parts to simultaneously move said parts in relatively opposite directions to effect the registration of the apertures thereof and produce an articulated emission of the sound during the air expelling movement of said member. 7

5. In a sound producing device, an air chamber and a weighty gravity movable member for expelling air from said chamber, a sound producing reed through which the air is expelled, said member having a sound receiving passage and including relatively rotatable apertured parts controlling emission of sound from said passage, and means coop crating with means on said parts to rotate the same in reverse directions and effect an articuing passage and including relatively rotatable apertured parts controlling emission of sound from said passage, and means positioned exteriorly of the air chamber and coacting with means on said parts to simultaneously rotate the same in relatively reverse directions and efiect an articulated emission of the sound through the apertures thereof during the air expelling movement of said member.

7. In a sound producing device, a casing,

an air chamber therein, a weighty gravity movable member for expelling air from said chamber, a sound producing reed through ,which the air is expelled, said member having a sound receiving passage and apertured parts relatively movable in an angular direction with respect to the path of movement of said; member and controlling emission of sound from said passage, and means for automatically actuating said parts to effect an meoss articulated emission of sound through the apertures thereof during the air expelling movement of said member. I

8. In a sound producing device, a casing, an air chamber. therein, a weighty gravity movable member for expelling air from said chamber, sound producing reed through which the air is expelled, said member havingva sound receiving passage and apertured parts relatively movable in an angular direction with respect to the path of movement of said member and controlling emission of sound from said passage, and means onthe wall of said casing coacting with means on said parts to move the same relative to each other and effect an articulated emission of the sound through the apertures thereof during the air expelling movement of said member.

9. In a sound producing device, a casing, an air chamber therein and a weighty grav ity movable member for expelling air from said chamber, a sound producing reed through which the air is expelled, said mem ber having a sound emission aperture and a passage from the reed to said aperture, a relatively movable part carried by said member and controlling the emission of sound through said aperture, and means coacting with means on said member and means on said part tov simultaneously move the same in parallel planes and in relatively opposite directions during the air expelling movement of. said member and effect an articulated emissionof the sound.

10. In a sound producing device, a-casing, an air chamber therein and a weighty gravity movable member for expelling air from said chamber, a sound producing reed through which the air is expelled, said member having a sound emission aperture and a passage from the reed to said aperture, a relatively movable part carried by said member and controlling the emission of sound through said aperture, and means coacting with means on said member and means on said part to move the samein relatively opposite angular directions with respect to the direction of the air expelling movement of said member and effect an articulated emission of the sound.

11. In a sound producing device, a casing, an air chamber therein and a weighty gravity movable member for expelling air from said chamber, a sound producing reed through which the air is expelled, said mem her having a sound emission aperture and a passage from the reed to said aperture, a relatively movable part carried by said memher and controlling the emission of sound through said aperture, and means on the Wall of said. casing coacting with means on said member and means on said part to simultaneously move the same in relatively oppoling movement of said member and effect an artlculated emission of the sound.

12. Ina sound produclng devlce, an air re,

ceiving chamber and a weighty gravity movtures in sa1d parts, and oppositely extendingable member to expel air from said chamber, a sounding reed through which the air is ex pelled, said member having a sound emission aperture and a passage fromthe reed to said aperture, a sound Control element movably mounted on said member, and means exterior of said air chamber coacting with means on said member and'means' on the sound control element to simultaneously move the said member-and element in an angular direction with respect to the direction of air expelling movement of said member to effect an articulated emission of the sound through said aperture. V J

13. In a sound producing device, a casing, an air chamber therein and a weighty gravity movable member for expelling air from vsaid chamber, a sound producing reed through which the air is expelled, said member having a sound emission aperture and a passage from the reed to said aperture, an apertured sound emission controldisc rotatably mounted on said member, and said disc and the wallvof said casing provided with coacting disc rotating means to impact rotative movement to said disc during the air expelling movement of said member and st fect an articulated emission of the sound.

145. In a sound producing device, a casing, an air chamber therein and a weighty gravity movable member for expelling air from said chamber, asound producing reed through which the air is expelled, sa1d member havlng a sound emlssion aperture and a passage from'the, reed to said aperture, a" sound control element rotatably mounted upon said member for movement'over said aperture, a helical rib on the wall: of said casing coacting with means on saidsound con-' trol element to rotate thesame during the air expelling movement of said member and effect an articulated emission of the sound.

15. In a sound producing device, a casing, an air chamber therein and a weighty gravity movable member for expelling air from said chamber, a sound producing reed through which the air is expelled, saidmem ber having relatively rotatable apertured sound emission control. parts and 'a passage from the reed to the apertures ofsaid parts governing the egress of sound from said passage, and spaced helical ribs on the wall of said casing coacting with means on said parts to rotate the same with respect to each other during the air expelling movement of said member and effect an articulated emission of the same.

16. In a sound producing device, a casing,

an air chamber therein ,anda weighty gravity movable member for expelling airirom said chamber,a sound producing reed through which the air is expelled,.said member hav ing a sound receiving passage and including relatively rotatable apertured parts, said passage connecting the reed with the aperchamber, a sound producing reed through which the air is expelled, said member hav-' ing a sound receiving chamber provided with emission apertures 1n one wall thereof and a passage between the reed and said chamber, an apertured sound control disc rotatably,

mounted upon said wall, oppositely extending helical ribs on the wall of said casing, and said member and said disc having means to coact with the respective ribs whereby said parts'are rotated in relatively opposite directions during the air expelling movement of said member to effect an articulated emission of the sound through said apertures.

.18. In a sound producing device, a sounding reed and a passage receiving sound from said reed, a movable member to cause a flow of 7 air through said reed in the movement of said membe'rin, one dlrectlon, and means for controlling the emission of sound from sa1d pastiveto the other, one of said parts having sound emission aperturesthereinand the other of said parts cooperating with said apertures, and means 'coacting with means on each of said parts in the movement of said member in one direction to impart a relative movement to said movable parts in reverse directions and articulate the emission of the sound through said apertures.

19. In a sound producing device,'a sounding reed and a passage receiving the sound from said reed, a member movable in one di rection to cause a flow of air through the reed to operate the latter, and means-for controlling the'emission' of sound from said passage including two'parts'each slidable relative to the other in parallel planes, one of said parts having sound outlet apertures and the other of said parts cooperating with said apertures to govern the emission of sound therethrough and means cooperating with means with respect to each other in reverse directions and articulate the emission of the sound through said apertures.

In testlmony that I claim the foregoing as my invention, 1 have signed my name hereto.

1 1 LEO J. GRUBMAN.

10o "sage including two parts each movable rela- 

